Markets Rise For 3rd Straight Day

By Ben PopkenMarch 12, 2009

Markets rose Thursday for the 3rd straight day. While champagne corks should stay stoppered, that’s still something that hasn’t happened for a long-ass time (January, if we’re going to get technical). [Bloomberg] (Photo: sdsparks)

@DadCooks: You realize that the countries top 9 banks were forced to take TARP money, right? You realize that many banks want to give their TARP money back but the Fed doesn’t have a procedure in place yet to recieve the money? You realize that many banks, seeing how their counter parts our dragged through the mud by the media, are asking the Fed to pull their TARP applications out of the que?/listened to a lecture from the KC Fed Executive President last night

It doesn’t matter if the market rises. If I look out the window and see a dark cloud, it’s probably going to rain.

Read what Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital, said in late 2006, when asked why he thought a recession was coming and how long it would be:

“I think it’s going to be pretty bad, and whether it starts in ’07 or ‘8, I think is immaterial. I also think it’s going to last not just for quarters, but for years.

See, the basic problem in the U.S. economy is that we have too much consumption and borrowing, and not enough production and savings. And what’s going to happen is that the American consumer is basically going to stop consuming and start rebuilding his savings, especially when he sees his home equity evaporate. And when you have the economy 70% consumption, you can’t address those imbalances without a recession. You know, rather than the recession being resisted, it should really be embraced, because the disease is all this debt-financed consumption. The cure, is that we stop consuming and start saving and producing again, and that’s a recession. And sometimes, you know, medicine tastes bad, but you gotta swallow it.”

Here’s what he said in December, 2006, about the housing market:

“Well, today’s home prices are completely unsustainable. They were bid up to these artificial heights by a combination of temporarily low adjustable-rate mortgage payments; by a complete, you know, absence of any lending standards; and by speculative buying. And what’s going to happen in 2007, is a lot of these artificially low ARM payments are going to be reset upward. You’re gonna start to see both the government and the lenders re-imposing lending standards and tightening up on credit. And you’re gonna see a lot of the speculative buyers turn into sellers. And these sky-high real estate prices are gonna come crashing back down to Earth.”

He’s been predicting the Dow would be worth 1 ounce of gold. Enjoy the rises, but I’d keep the champagne in the basement for a while.

@MooseOfReason: Peter Schiff is a raging goldbug. While I think there’s some merit to that argument, his judgment is somewhat compromised by his fixation on that particular PM. This isn’t an uncommon problem by any means, but I’d think twice before I unfailingly believe everything he says.

My own personal favorite oracle is Mike Shedlock, better known as “mish”. He’s a little better at the big picture.

Yeah, all that arguing and Euro-Pacific lost a fortune last year because it was early on commodities. His clients got killed because of his “genius.” It’s one thing to be an investor and quite another to play one on YouTube.